Most Wasted Ingredients

Cheese

Cheese is a common victim of our garbage bins. As a breathable perishable, it’s important to get storage right to make sure you get the most out it.

Store |

Store cheese in an airtight container in your fridge or seal packaging with a bag clip.

Cheese is best stored in the warmest parts of your fridge, namely the fridge door or the top shelf. Many fridges provide a cheese tray to keep cheeses at a warmer temperature. As soft cheeses deteriorate faster than hard cheeses, they are best stored in a cooler part of your fridge. It’s best to also keep soft cheeses wrapped in grease proof paper rather than plastic, in order that they can breathe.

Hard cheeses store excellently in the freezer. Grate fully and keep in a sealed plastic bag – cheese can be used in cooking straight from frozen.

For blue cheese make sure to fully wrap in foil as spores will affect other cheeses as well as nearby items in your fridge.

And remember – cheese is often an item pushed to be the back the fridge or tucked into the fridge door. Keep it as visible as possible as a reminder it needs using up.

Cook |

Soft cheeses – try tossing through salads or scattering over a pizza for new ways to enjoy leftovers. Soft cheese can also be baked with mushrooms or crumbled on top of an omelette or frittata.

Hard cheeses – grate into a pasta bake, winter soup or quiche to add a cheesy kick to everyday dishes. Parmesan is great on salads or shaved on top of egg and pasta dishes and other hard cheeses can also be popped into sandwiches or used for cheese melts.

Shop |

As a general rule, try and buy only so much cheese as you can eat in two sittings. This will reduce the need for long cheese storage and reduce the chance of wastage.

Fun Fact |

Making cheese is a milk intensive business. On average, 10 litres of milk goes into making 1 kilo of hard cheese.

Recipe Ideas |

Try out these recipes which will give you some great ideas on how to use cheese as part of your cooking: